Greta Thunberg Worksheets | Environmental Activism, Impact (2024)

Greta Thunberg is a young environmental activist who raised awareness and urged climate action among the youth and world leaders. She initiated the Fridays for Future movement, which was joined by millions of young people.

See the fact file below for more information about Greta Thunberg, or you can download our 27-page Greta Thunberg worksheet pack to utilize within the classroom or home environment.

Facts About Greta Thunberg

EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION

• Greta Tintin Eleonora Ernman Thunberg was born on January 3, 2003, to parents Malena Ernman and Svante Thunberg, an opera singer and an actor, respectively.
• Upon learning about climate change at age eight, Greta Thunberg wondered why so little was done to address this problem.
• The climate situation depressed her and caused her to stop talking and eating. She reportedly lost 10 kilograms in two months.
• Later on, she was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, selective mutism, and obsessive-compulsive disorder.
• It is also said that she suffered from depression for four years before starting her protests.
• In May 2018, she joined and won a climate change essay competition by a Swedish newspaper, Svenska Dagbladet.
• Upon publication of her essay, Bo Thorén of Fossil Fre invited her to their group meetings. After attending a few sessions, Bo Thorén suggested that school children should conduct a strike for climate change.
• Greta Thunberg then tried to invite young people to join her. However, since no one was interested, she decided to strike alone.
• Before taking a sabbatical year in 2019, Greta Thunberg attended Franska Skolan. She then transferred to Kringlaskolan in Södertälje.
• She graduated high school in June 2023, marking her last School Strike for Climate.

ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVISM OF GRETA THUNBERG

• With the influence of Bo Thoren, Greta Thunberg invited young people to join her in a strike for the climate. However, there was little interest, and Thunberg decided to strike alone.
• Thus, on August 20, 2018, Greta Thunberg did not attend school and went to the Swedish Parliament holding a banner that translated to School Strike for Climate. She demanded the Swedish Government reduce its carbon footprint as stipulated in the Paris Agreement.
• She continued to protest outside of the Swedish Parliament for three weeks. She said she would return to school after the 2018 Swedish national election.
• Despite starting the strike alone, Greta Thunberg was joined by other activists on her second day of protest.
• This was due to other youth activists sharing her post about her first strike on social media platforms.
• Ingmar Rentzhog of the social media company We Don’t Have Time credits himself with increasing Thunberg’s social media presence and getting more climate activists to join her school strikes.
• Rentzhog asked Thunberg to be their company’s unpaid youth advisor, to which she agreed. However, he used her name and image without her knowledge or permission to raise funds for his company.
• Greta Thunberg released a statement denying her involvement and that she received no money from Rentzhog. From then on, she stopped being their youth advisor.
• Throughout 2018, Greta Thunberg went on mostly solitary strikes, joined European demonstrations, and delivered high-profile public speeches. She also used her social media pages to attract more attention to her cause and get more youth to go on a school strike for climate change.
• Greta Thunberg returned to school after the 2018 Swedish National Election but continued her school strike every Friday, which also came to be known as the Fridays for Future Movement.
• In December 2018, about 20,000 students from at least 270 cities joined her movement.
• In the same month, she delivered a speech at the 2018 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Poland, stating that world leaders present during the summit were “not mature enough to tell it as it is.”
• Greta Thunberg started 2019 with a speech at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, stating that “our house is on fire” and that she did not want hope but for us to panic and take action.
• On April 16, 2019, Greta Thunberg gave a speech at the European Parliament, calling everyone to panic and to act like the house was on fire.
• The following month, Greta Thunberg attended and gave a speech at the Austrian World Summit.
• She urged world leaders to take action and admit that not enough was being done to address climate change.
• Greta Thunberg advocated cutting back on carbon footprinting. Thus, in August 2019, she traveled across the Atlantic in a zero-emissions boat to attend and deliver a speech at the United Nations Climate Action in New York.
• In October 2019, she delivered a speech at the Canadian House of Commons. In November of the same year, she attended the COP25 climate conference in Madrid.
• In the same year, she returned to school but continued her climate activism.
• The online strikes continued until 2021. In the same year, the COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland, was set to happen. Initially, Greta Thunberg refused to join the conference due to vaccine inequality.
• She later changed her mind when the government decided to vaccinate all participants.
• In the following year, the COP27 climate summit was held in Egypt, which Thunberg did not attend, saying it was an opportunity for “greenwashing, lying, and cheating.”
• However, early that year, she made a surprise appearance during the Glastonbury Festival in 2022. She warned people of the dangers of climate change, criticizing world leaders for protecting firms that contribute a lot of carbon emissions.
• She ended her speech by telling the festival-goers that they can make a change and that everyone is capable of doing incredible things.
• In the following year, 2023, Thunberg continued with the climate protests. She joined demonstrations such as one in Germany, where she and others protested against the expansion of a lignite coal mine.
• She, along with many others, protested in Oslo, blocking entrances of government buildings to show opposition to using indigenous land for wind turbines.
• She was also detained twice during demonstrations outside Norwegian government buildings.
• She graduated from school in the summer of 2023 and took part in her last school strike for the climate but continued to hold weekly protests.
• Thunberg was convicted and fined in Sweden for disobeying a police order to leave a protest in June of 2023 but was later found at another protest.
• She, along with dozens of others, was detained after blocking the entrance to the Energy Intelligence Forum in central London. The police charged her with a public order offense. She appeared in British Court and pleaded not guilty to the said offense.

AWARDS, RECOGNITION, AND CRITICISM

• Greta Thunberg has spent most of her time advocating for the climate, protesting against activities and programs that can further deteriorate our environment.
• Due to her efforts to raise awareness and stop projects that cause harm to the environment, Greta Thunberg has been recognized by world leaders and renowned environmentalists.
• In 2019, after meeting with Greta Thunberg, Barack Obama tweeted that she is “one of our planet’s greatest advocates.”
• Sir David Attenborough extended his gratitude to Thunberg by saying, “You have aroused the world. I’m very grateful to you.
• Thunberg won the Right Livelihood Award and Amnesty International’s Ambassador of Conscience in 2019. She was also named one of the Forbes 100 Most Powerful Women. In the same year, she was named the Youngest Time Person of the Year.
• In July 2020, she won the Gulbenkian Prize for Humanity.
• From 2019 to 2023, she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
• Greta Thunberg also received many awards and recognitions from award-giving bodies and reputable magazines. Despite these accolades, Thunberg also received criticism.
• In 2023, Andrew Tate taunted Thunberg by sending details of the carbon emissions of his 33 cars.
• Another criticism, Donald Trump on Twitter, now X, said that Greta Thunberg must work on her anger management problem.
• Vladimir Putin mentioned that she is a “kind but poorly informed teenager.”

IMPACTS, PHILANTHROPISM, AND LEGACY

• Greta Thunberg did not contribute any environmental theories or concepts but has raised significant public awareness of climate change worldwide.
• Aside from this, she has also donated some of the awards she received to different organizations.
• In 2020, she donated the $100,000 incentive to UNICEF. She then donated the 1 million euro prize money from the Gulbenkian Prize for Humanity to charitable organizations.
• In 2021, under her foundation, she pledged to donate 100,000 euros to the World Health Organization to support the COVAX vaccine-sharing scheme.
• In 2022, she released “The Climate Book,” containing essays from more than a hundred experts, analyzing the causes, consequences, and challenges of the climate crisis.

Greta Thunberg Worksheets

This fantastic bundle includes everything you need to know about Greta Thunberg across 27 in-depth pages. These ready-to-use worksheets are perfect for teaching kids about the Greta Thunberg. Greta Thunberg released a statement denying her involvement and that she received no money from Rentzhog. From then on, she stopped being their youth advisor.

Complete List of Included Worksheets

Below is a list of all the worksheets included in this document.

1. Greta Thunberg Fact File
2. Environmental Advocate
3. Life with Greta
4. Concept Formation
5. Climate Change
6. My Carbon Footprint
7. Call to Action
8. What’s Yours?
9. The Driving Forces
10. Recognizing Greta
11. Behind the Banner

Frequently Asked Questions

WhoisGretaThunberg?

GretaThunbergisaSwedishenvironmentalactivistknownforhereffortstocombatclimatechange.Shegainedinternationalrecognitionforstartingthe“FridaysforFuture”movement,wherestudentsskipschooltoprotestagainstgovernmentinactiononclimatechange.

HowdidGretaThunbergstartherclimateactivism?

GretabeganherclimateactivisminAugust2018whenshestartedskippingschooltositoutsidetheSwedishParliamentwithasignreading“Skolstrejkförklimatet”(SchoolStrikeforClimate).Heractionsquicklygainedattentionandinspiredsimilarstrikesaroundtheworld.

WhatimpacthasGretaThunberghadontheclimatemovement?

GretaThunberghashadasignificantimpactontheclimatemovementbyraisingglobalawarenessaboutclimatechangeandinspiringmillionsofyoungpeopletojointhe“FridaysforFuture”strikes.Shehasalsoaddressedworldleadersatvariousinternationalconferences,urgingthemtotakeimmediateaction.

WhatchallengeshasGretaThunbergfacedinheractivism?

Gretahasfacedcriticismandbacklashfromsomepoliticiansandmediaoutletswhoquestionhermotivesandtheeffectivenessofheractivism.Despitethis,shehasremainedsteadfastinhermissionandcontinuestoadvocateforstrongerclimatepolicies.

WhatawardsandrecognitionhasGretaThunbergreceived?

Greta Thunberg has received numerous awards and recognitions for her activism, including being named Time’s Person of the Year in 2019, the youngest-ever recipient of the Right Livelihood Award, and being nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize multiple times.

References

• BBC
• Britannica
• Wikipedia

Link/cite this page

If you reference any of the content on this page on your own website, please use the code below to cite this page as the original source.

Link will appear as - KidsKonnect, November 27, 2024